1. Field of the Invention
A powered lawn mower of the type particularly adapted for mowing greens on golf courses and having a powered vertically adjustable reel cutting unit is converted into a greensroller.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Golf greens require a healthy stand of grass but golfers demand fast greens. The usual greens maintenance program includes aerification, reducing mowing height, double mowing, vertical mowing, grooming, light topdressing and reducing fertility. Greens speed is increased by lowering mowing height but this jeopardizes the health of the turf. Turf health is improved by aerification to relieve compaction but this causes surface unevenness. Greensrollers have been proposed as a means of providing a fast, smooth, consistent and somewhat firm playing surface without scalping the grass.
One idea for a greensroller is to remove the front reel on a walkbehind greensmower and mount a large-diameter pipe in its place. The pipe is filled with lead providing a heavy weight on the front roller part of the mower. A walkbehind greensroller does not cover a wide swath of the green and its use is labor intensive.
There are riding machines which are dedicated to being greensrollers. One such machine is the Speed Roller manufactured by Friend Manufacturing Corp. of Gasport, New York. A similar greensroller is available from Australia and is being distributed by Woodbay Enterprises of Phoenix, Arizona. These machines have various shortcomings including that of cost.
It would be desirable to have a riding greensroller which did not require the purchase of a machine totally dedicated to being a greensroller. Most golf courses already have multiple deck riding lawn mowers that have powered vertically adjustable reel cutting units but they cannot be converted into a greensroller by simply swapping a weighted roller for the reel. This is because the hydraulics for lifting the cutting units are not suitable for lifting a heavy weighted roller.